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Model Gigi Hadid has fired back at critics who took aim at her for tearing into Greece following a vacation robbery, insisting she has every right to voice an opinion about a holiday gone wrong.
Hadid and her sister Bella cut short their summer break to Mykonos after thieves ransacked their rental apartment, stealing personal items, jewellery and cash.
The angry model warned her social media followers to stay away from the island, insisting she would never be going back.
The post upset some fans, who felt it was wrong for her to "defame the country", with one follower writing: "Millions of people visit Mykonos yearly. Just because it happened to you, it doesn’t mean it happens to everyone. Have you ever seen the crimes and killings that happen in your country? Let alone the mass shootings?"
Hadid has now responded to the backlash, revealing her apartment was one of 30 targeted on the night of the robbery.
"Let me make this clear for everyone below who thinks I don’t deserve to have an opinion on my experience and warn people of this - I was robbed along with more than 30 houses that night, some to gunpoint (sic)," she writes on Instagram, insisting the robbery was one thing, but the way local authorities dealt with the drama really upset her.
"It was not possible to contact any form of law enforcement except through my local security who happened to have a contact. That is a privilege that most people traveling there wouldn’t have.
"If something happens while the police station is closed, there is nothing that can be done to protect yourself, and when the station does open, it doesn’t seem as though their training and resources are in line with keeping people safe or keeping up with the amount of crime that is happening on a nightly basis there (I am speaking of the island specifically only because it’s where I experienced this)."
She continues: "This is not information that is shared with people before they go. If I’d known it happened so much and there was not enough infrastructure to protect myself I wouldn’t have gone. So this is my opinion based on actual events and you not liking that isn’t my problem.
"Lastly, I work my a** off and never do a trip like this for myself and friends, so if I want to post pictures of the trip after being robbed, I will do so."